Unravelling the mechanisms underlying desiccation tolerance is crucial in order to understand the position of algal species in the intertidal zone. The alga Porphyra columbina lives in the uppermost part of the rocky intertidal zones around the world and was selected as a model for this study. Naturally desiccated plants were collected during low tide and… (More)

The red alga Gracilaria chilensis is commercially farmed for the production of agar hydrocolloids, but some susceptible algae in farms suffer from intense epiphyte growth. We investigated the induced chemical defense response of G. chilensis against epiphytes and demonstrated that an extract of an epiphyte-challenged alga can trigger a defense response. The… (More)

Chimerism theoretically increases the genetic heterogeneity of coalescing organisms, which in turn may increase phenotypic variability in chimeras, allowing them greater tolerance to environmental changes when compared with non-coalescing individuals. In order to test this hypothesis, we compared abiotic stress tolerance between coalescing and… (More)